AARE, JE T'AIME!

Screenshot from Into the Wild

Soft and swift is the AARE, cool and soothing. The moment you touch its waters the river beckons you, welcoming you further until you fall into the mountain green of the clear stream... Another second, and the shore is too far away to remember who you are or why you are here. Where does it start from and when does it end?.. Soon, the questions become but a shadow, and what matters is the caring tenderness of the water that is safer than anything I know. You feel the sun's light shine on you, but it's when you open your eyes that you see the rays flicker through the leaves like a caravan of nights and days, as if you were on a river train looking out of the window. The trees observe your body sail along leaving no traces, and you watch the shapes of clouds and quench your thirst in the navy blue of the sky...

Blessed are the souls who painted JE T'AIME at the exit to the Montreux - Bern highway!
A step is made, and the highway river is carrying me caringly away from another shore, from the moments of true joy, trust and honesty. It all stays with you because you gave yourself away and you live in one another still. I am returning to the beginning, but with the whole world inside me.

The shore, finally. The river keeps your worn out clothes. The barley fields at the foot of a distant mountain and the high marram grass are shaking in the wind, glinting in the tile red serenity of the September sunset, the final sunset. It is Indian summer, and the purple of blooming heather and wild mountain thyme - they all are here and have always been. Nearby, a black cat is sitting on the gate in front of a house and someone strangely familiar is milking white goats, the kind eyes smiling. The shower of withered leaves is waving us good-bye, until it all transforms into whispers of light. Home, finally.

AARE, JE T'AIME!